Management Magic 2: Creating Self-Managed Employees
What could be more helpful than having all your employees doing exactly what is needed for success without having to worry about who is doing what, when and how? The most successful organizations are able to create a strong cadre of self managed employees who serve as role models for others and who are dependable in getting the right work done, on time and within costs.
(So how do you create ‘self-managed’ employees? And if they are self managed, why do you need a management team? We’ll discuss that another time.)
The first step to creating self-managed employees is to hire the right people. ‘Get the right people on the bus!’ says Jim Collins in Good to Great. We tend to forget he also said, ’Get the right people in the right seats’. But let’s assume you have done a good job of hiring the right people and they are in the right jobs at your company. Now what?
Now comes the fun part! Once expectations are clear, and you have set up regular review sessions to ensure your employee is on target, then you can move to the ‘self-managed’ step.
The easiest way to create self-managed employees is ask them to evaluate their own progress regularly. So once the expectations have been set and agreed upon, next you meet with your employee and ask, “Tell me about the progress you have made on….. What else could you do to ensure success on ….?Who else do you need to involve?” and “Have you considered…..?”
And here is an important tip. Ya’ gotta’ listen! Waiting for the answer and allowing the employee to fumble with the answer is ok. Fumbling will happen the first few times, but in a very short time, the employee realizes he/she needs to come prepared to this session and he/she will have thought out the responses.
You have just taken the first important step in creating an environment where employees are expected to think through the daily challenges. Next, you have to keep asking employees to think through the issues. It may faster to just solve the problem yourself, but in doing so, you are certain to be the one, and the only one, who is thinking about the business.
And at the next regular meeting, repeat the questions: “Tell me about the progress you have made on….. What else could you do to ensure success on ….?Who else do you need to involve?” and “Have you considered…..?”
Building a strong team is powerful leadership. And it takes time. And repetition. Leadership is a long, slow boring process. Time to get started.
It’s Always About People.
